Poker Hall of Famer Eli Elezra has long been one of the most well-known, popular, and accomplished figures in the game. With $5.7 million in career tournament earnings, Eli is best known for his expertise across a diverse array of poker formats, especially the mixed game variants. Last year, Eli clinched victory in the NAPT Las Vegas $5,300 8-Game Mix, besting a table filled with his longtime friends and peers. With this year’s event fast approaching, he’s ready to defend his title and aims to showcase the skills that have made him a legend. In this exclusive Q&A, Eli discusses his passion for mixed games, the strategies he employs in tournaments and how he makes adjustments from his regular cash game play, and what it would mean to capture a back-to-back title in the event—a feat rarely achieved in poker.
Eli Elezra Interview
Do you have a favorite among the eight games, and why?
Well, I just love the 8-Game Mix in general; that’s what we used to play years ago and it’s still the best mix. If I had to just pick one game as my favorite, it would be 7 Card Stud High, with Razz being my second-favorite game. I love Stud because it’s “old school”. I learned the game from Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese and the game just “stuck to me”. Also, in my opinion, most of my opponents tend to play Stud poorly.
If you could switch out one game and replace it with another game, which ones would it be and why?
I would take out No Limit Hold’em and insert No Limit 2-7 Single Draw. No Limit Deuce has such beautiful elements. You can bluff; you can snow. You can play certain hands differently. You can move in on a draw. These are things you can’t really do in No Limit Hold’em.
READ MORE: 8 Beginner Tips for 8-Game Mix
You typically play in cash games six days a week; what does it take to get you to leave the cash games that you love and hop into a tournament? Specifically, is there anything that you look for as far as buy-in, structure, etc that particularly appeals to you?
I would only leave the cash games to play in a tournament if it’s a mixed game tournament. With all due respect to the two-card game, all the solver stuff and GTO stuff out there means the new young guns are much better than me. Plus, honestly, I find Hold’em boring.
Since the NAPT Las Vegas’ $5,300 8-Game Mix is happening right here at Resorts World, where we regularly play 5-6 days a week, ALL of our regular high limit cash game players will be going upstairs to the big ballroom to play in the tournament. So, I won’t even have a cash game available to “leave”. 😊
Congratulations to Eli Elezra for being the victorious winner of the $5300 8-Game at @PokerStars NAPT! 🎉🏆 @ChadAHolloway had the pleasure of speaking to Eli right after his big win and he graciously shared his thoughts on the tournament. check it out! pic.twitter.com/CaaNPG3hZR
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) November 11, 2023
The typical mixed cash game dynamic has some similarities and some differences from the typical mixed game tournament. Which do you think are the most notable?
That’s a very good question. I change my style drastically from cash games to tournaments. In cash games I play FAR more hands, as we are deepstacked. You really have to buckle down in a tournament when you’ve run out of rebuys and your tournament life is at risk.
I probably hold back a little from playing big pots in No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha because I believe I have a small – maybe 2% – edge in the fixed limit games. So I try to concentrate and play many more high quality hands. More specifically, in 2-7 Triple Draw, for instance, in a cash game I’ll often draw three, whereas in tournaments that will NEVER happen; I’ll only draw one or maybe two. In cash games, I’ll maybe try snowing, but that doesn’t really work as well in tournaments because you get caught bluffing once or twice and you then really have your work cut out for you trying to rebuild a short stack.
There were 32 players in last year’s NAPT $5300 eight-game mix, you won it for a little over $53,000. Sitting at the final table were some good friends of yours, including guys who play in your regular cash game, like Eric Sagstrom, David Baker, David Funkhauser, and Julian Martini. What did it mean to you to emerge victorious in the tournament over players you see at the felt almost every day?
I came back to the cash game holding the trophy and a big smile; I showed off a little bit. I love it! And when I win, I’m gonna tell them “guys, I’m still here!” I’m almost 64 years old and I can still play the games well. It feels very good to prove myself over and over, and I’m going to try my best to win this one again.
Image credit: Joe Giron
In what ways, if at all, do you make adjustments to the way you play as the final table shrinks down from full ring to heads up play?
There’s a HUGE adjustment. Last year, for example, when I was heads up against Mike Martinelli. I had a 3:1 chip advantage going in and I just said to him “hello #2”. 😊 But Mike told me that he felt helpless against me in the Stud games. I stole all the antes, and in the variants where he was good, the blinds were so high and he really couldn’t maneuver much.
You really have to have experience to know how to make the right adjustments as the field shrinks down at the final table. Someone without experience thinks they can play the same game even though there are fewer players at the table; that’ll get them in trouble. You have to be way more aggressive and play many more hands when you’re short-handed. You can’t just sit around waiting for premium hands.
In the 8-Game mix, there are six fixed limit games, one pot limit game, and one no limit game. Can you briefly go into the dynamics of how play tends to change, from your experience, when the limits change?
As I mentioned previously, I tighten up a lot more in tournaments during No Limit Hold’em and PLO as opposed to when I play those two variants as part of a cash game mix. One mistake in the big bet games and you might critically devastate or lose your stack; you’ve got to be much more careful.
You’ve won plenty of events over the course of your Hall of Fame career, including three notable eight game wins, last year’s NAPT, a $10k Bellagio High Roller, and a $10k at the US Poker Open. But you’ve never successfully “defended” a title. That’s something that’s notoriously difficult to do in poker. What would it mean to you if you were able to win this event back to back?
Well, we were only 32 players in last year’s field and hopefully this year we’ll attract about 50 players. Stu Ungar famously said, “it’s not about winning the tournament, it’s about winning the second one back-to-back.” So, it would mean a lot to me.
The 2024 NAPT $5,300 Cardplayer Lifestyle 8-Game Mix event begins at 2pm local time on Friday November 8th.
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